Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been adopted in many industries for different applications. For example, RFID is deployed to track locations of items in an operational environment. In particular, an RFID tag is attached to an item. An RFID reader is operated to read the RFID tag. Based on reading the RFID tag, a determination is made that the item is located in proximity to the RFID reader.
In many operational environments, the RFID tag of the item may be read by multiple RFID readers within a certain period of time. In a way, the RFID readers cross-read the RFID tag at substantially the same time. Hence, processing the different reads of the different RFID readers may be performed to determine which of the RFID readers is closest to the item and, accordingly, complete the proximity detection.
Generally, processing the cross-reads to detect proximity involves determining the maximum received signal strength. For example, a particular RFID reader measuring the largest received signal strength indicator (RSSI) is selected as being the closest to the item. However, such a proximity detection may be inaccurate. For example, radio frequency (RF) reflections and obstructions from objects and orientation of the RFID tag relative to the RFID readers may result in the largest RSSI, whereas the particular RFID reader may not be the closest reader to the item.